Willenstenhelia urania, Karanovic & Kim, 2014

Karanovic, Tomislav & Kim, Kichoon, 2014, New insights into polyphyly of the harpacticoid genus Delavalia (Crustacea, Copepoda) through morphological and molecular study of an unprecedented diversity of sympatric species in a small South Korean bay, Zootaxa 3783 (1), pp. 1-96 : 84

Willenstenhelia urania sp. nov.

Synonymy. Stenhelia aff. minuta A. Scott – Por 1964: p. 83, pl. 12, figs. 111, 112.

Type locality. Israel, Mediterranean Sea , off Netanya, muddy bottom, 300 m depth, approximate coordinates 32.3257°N 34.593°E .

Type material. Hollotype female illustrated by Por (1964) in figs. 111 and 112, dissected on a slide, collected on 8 October 1961, deposited at the Zoology Department of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel; not examined .

Etymology. The species is named after Urania (Ancient Greek: Ούρανία), one of nine Muses from Greek mythology, who was a patron of tragedy. The species name is a noun in apposition (in the nominative case).

Description. Female as described by Por (1964) from Israel, and illustrated in his figures 111 and 112 as Stenhelia aff. minuta A. Scott, 1902 . Male unknown.

Remarks. Por (1964) was aware that his single female specimen from the Mediterranean Coast of Israel differed from those of Willenstenhelia minuta (A. Scott, 1902) comb. nov. originally described from the Indian Ocean by Scott (1902) and subsequently reported from the Suez Canal in Egypt by Gurney (1927) (see also Lang 1948), which he expressed both by using the abbreviation “aff.” in front of the species name and by listing three major morphological differences between them: relative length of the caudal rami, armature of the second exopodal segment of the first swimming leg, and armature of the female fifth leg endopodal lobe. In light of the newly discovered diversity of the Korean sympatric stenheliins, these morphological differences cannot be attributed to intraspecific variability. Both species are, however, described only by a very limited set of morphological characters, and their relationship, as well as those between them and other three congeners, cannot be properly assessed without a thorough redescription. At the moment it seems that Willenstenhelia urania sp. nov. is most closely related to Willenstenhelia minuta and Willenstenhelia terpsichore sp. nov. (see below). Their affinities to Willenstenhelia thalia sp. nov. are discussed above, and they all differ from the Mozambique Willenstenhelia unisetosa ( Wells, 1967) comb. nov. by much longer caudal rami.